In Part One, we considered the two layers of interpretation (intention and results), their facets, their two modes of interaction (including meta-intent), and the two purist interpretations- to see only the results (death of the author) and to see only
I addressed ‘death of the author’ quite early on in this blog’s career, and frankly, when I reviewed that article a half a year later, I was unimpressed. Thus, today I’ll be returning to the topic, giving what I believe
G.K. Chesterton, as I have already noted, could write some odd stories. In that, he is far from exceptional. What makes Chesterton so intriguing is his mastery in writing those odd stories, that he could take a premise as outrageous
Story ideas are a dime a dozen, but story ideas that actually get written, in my experience, are one in a hundred. Now, logically you’d think that means a usable story idea costs a bit more than eight dollars, but
Nowadays, lamenting that everybody else seems to live in a separate reality is a not unknown pastime of the sane (assuming I do not presume too much by lumping myself into that sum). Whoever you are, you’ve probably run across
As last week laid out, Henty has a standard protagonist, and that standard protagonist seems a bit Mary-Sue-ish. He’s not got much vice, he’s really good at what he does, and he sits at the right hand of so many
G.A. Henty wrote about a hundred books with the same protagonist. He did not, to be clear, write a series of that length; his longest series is three books long, and indeed he only wrote three series to my memory.
Fantasy and sci-fi are legendary for exposition dumps. See, worldbuilding and its ilk is often quite important to the story, even to the point of being a part of the pitch to get the reader interested, but too often it
Despite what our first instinct might be, we must recognize that more much we like characters and how good they are really doesn’t correlate very well. Of course, we’re none too fond of Puppy Kicker McEvilface, and certain evils just
What makes a good ending? The question plagues us, sometimes. Why does this ending work and that one doesn’t? What’s too much, what’s too little? Why did Tolkien spend six of Book Six’s final chapters on the conclusion? The ending